This is my fitness related blog. I created this on the day I start training for my first marathon, just a few weeks short of a year after I found myself in the worst shape of my life. Something had to change. Me. So I did. And I am. I want to see what this 1974 vintage body is capable of. Hence, my Mantra (courtesy of Tool): Push the envelope. Watch it Bend.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

An 1800 Kcal exercise day

TRAINING LOG:

So I stopped writing my last post intending to immediately start up a new one to complete the catch-up. They I saw Tweets and Facebook updates start popping up in RockMelt which caused me to turn on the TV to see what "big news" Obama was announcing. ...and there went the rest of that night!

Friday ended up being a pretty serious workout day. I parked my car at work Thursday night and caught a ride home. Friday morning, I got up early and ran 10 miles to work. I had left a change of clothes and lunch at the office along with my laptop, and (most importantly) car keys! There's a LOT more planning & forethought that goes into a run like this than you'd think!

The run was intended to be 10 miles as my marathon pace (I've settled on 7:55 as my goal pace). My last 10 miler was busted out at a pace about 20 sec/mile faster, but for some reason, the force was not with me on this morning. It was a fairly tech-free (for me) today since I left my iPod and HRM/wrist watch @ work, but I did run with my Droid and Runkeeper. It's set to update every mile, so I simply tried to run on what "felt" like a touch faster than 8:00 and used the updates to chart my progress.

It was more difficult to hold the pace than any of my previous runs at this pace or faster for a mid- to long-distance run. My hamstrings just felt off for most of the run. The only time I really started feeling discouraged was between mile 8 & 9 when I thought, "I really don't think I can keep this pace for 26 miles!" to be follow a few moments later by RunKeeper informing me that I ran that last mile at a 7:30 pace. Whoops! Slow down, dumb-ass!

My first mile was 8:53, second at 7:58. Other than two hills (8:16 & 8:02), I kept everything else between 7:44 and 7:56 (also not counting the 7:30 "oops"). There are some moderate uphills segments, but the net of the run was downhill by a couple hundred feet, so I don't feel like I really over-ran my pace for effort.

I get to work, scamper (yes, scamper) over to the gym, shower, change and start the work day. A few hours later, I'm back at the gym for my cardio class. What do we start off with? Resisted sprints in the parking lot -- one person has an unbreakable resistance band around their waist and a second person trailing behind holding tension on the bands. 10 sprints total. Then we went inside & did kickboxing moves interspersed with core work. Total calorie burn for the day estimated at just shy of 1800 Kcal.

Saturday ended up being completely an off day. We went to friends' for their 2 yr old daughter's brunch birthday party which had many, many delicious home-made delights, none of which are remotely close to being on my diet plan... so I didn't track any of them!

Sunday was a wake-up-and-run-15-miles day. The weather was beautiful when I woke up... with a migraine. I decided the fresh air may fix it and I really wanted to get out. As I was getting ready, the nausea which tends to accompany my migraines started creeping in. No amount of mental coaxing was helping either condition and I ended up getting out of my running gear and crawling back into bed for another 3 hours.

The nausea was gone when I woke up and the headache was bearable, probably transitioning to a hunger- and dehydration-induced headache. My opportunity for a 15 miler was shot, but I was able to get out for a nice 5 mile run with my Sister-in-law who will be running in the VCMarathon this month on our Family Relay Team (Team Deep Fried Bacon; believe it or not I think it was probably the best option given the other names we were coming up with). Sunday ended up being another "off the grid" day for diet tracking, but I did manage to remember to turn the iTouch on for the run.

I seem to be doing a pretty good job keeping myself 2-3 days behind being current. I've also been doing a terrible job keeping up with the "MUSINGS" theme I was adding in my early editions of this blog. Many of those topics will most likely start showing up after the marathon as I reflect on my training and the result of the race. I've learned a lot about the science and physiology of running as well as nutrition for endurance athletes and it's information that's valuable to consolidate and share.

1 comment:

Thanks for running with me - I'm glad I can help you run slower. It's amazing how much you've learned about fitness and running over the last year! Inspiring. I'm also impressed by how often you post. I seem to be able to run or write in my spare time - but not both - and my blog has been sorely neglected.